Intellectuals often think of themselves as secular priests/monks,
who eschew commercial concerns.

They may thus feel contempt for
both dogmatic materialist Capitalism
and dogmatic materialist Marxism ('Communism').

They imagine that they're here to do the work
of understanding what the human adventure is all about.

This is actually an essential societal function,
providing ethical direction, etc.

It's something that used to be thought of
as trying to figure out the Mind of the Gods, as it were.

Unfortunately, today, the intelligentsia may have been
infiltrated and corrupted by bad actors
manipulating the gullible into undermining/discrediting
(actual) thought/episteme/science
in order to return humanity to the dark ages of
top-down dogma-based authority, where sociopaths can thrive.